One Step
by Liz Hollow
Summary: Dawn has no intentions of staying, even if Volkner wants her to. Beaconshipping.


**One Step**

"I never expected to see you here."

I always expected him to be here. The Vista Lighthouse seems to be his hideout.

I turn to him, smiling like a fool, though perhaps I am one. I haven't seen him in months, and somehow, that feels far too long for me. And seeing him now, his hands shoved in his pockets in a cool demeanor, I feel my heart thump against my chest. He looks exactly the same, but I can't help but notice a change in his eyes.

"Hey," I finally say, and I walk away from the binoculars and towards him. He closes the distance a little, stepping towards me. I try to tell myself that this doesn't mean anything; one step never does. But my heart beats again, and I hope that he can't hear it. Though if he can, what does he think about it?

"It's been awhile, hasn't it? You still got that spark?" He grins at me, a rare sight that I feel honored to see. But a smile doesn't mean anything, either. Does he show it to anyone else? Since I battled him all those months ago, he had apparently been taking more challenges and been spending more time at the gym. Maybe he showed it to all his challengers now.

So, I just laugh quietly, a soft giggle that means everything even when his steps and grins mean nothing. "I hope so." I see him pull a hand out of his pocket, and my eyes follow his hand to a Poké Ball inside his jacket. He looks expectantly at me, and I just shake my head. "I'm not here for a battle, Volkner. I actually have something to—"

"Oh. You wouldn't be, would you?" he asks, and I furrow my eyebrows. His tone, clipped and changed, bothers me now.

"What?"

He shrugs, and though nothing else means anything, this does. This quick upward movement of his shoulders, a cold turn of his head, tells me more than words could. Everything else a farce, this quick action tells me how he really feels. Indifferent, annoyed. He doesn't reserve that smile or that step for me.

"Well, the Champion of the Sinnoh region wouldn't want to have a rematch with just any old Gym Leader like me. You might still have that spark, but you save it for the big boys now. You electrify them now. I bet you show them." Volkner sighs, and I bite my lip. I curse myself silently for thinking he'd be happy for me.

"Volkner," I start, and his eyelids drop just enough to give him a sad expression. My heart thumps again, but this time I feel it breaking. It hurts, like a thousand knives being stabbed into a single point. "It's not that I don't want to battle you. I would love a rematch sometime, but I have to go back to Twinleaf after this. I just stopped by to—"

He laughs, putting the Poké Ball back inside his jackets and returning his hand to his pocket. "It's really amazing. How long did it take you to become Champion? A year? You left from Twinleaf when you were, what, sixteen, and now you're seventeen? That's very impressive. It took me this long to become Gym Leader. I started battling when I was young, and I became Gym Leader two years ago when I was twenty. How did you do it so quickly?" He sighs again, turning away from me. "You became Champion in less time than it took me to become just a Gym Leader."

"I thought you'd be happy for me," I say, tugging at the hem of my skirt in frustration. "Weren't you the one who said you wanted me to 'demonstrate to the Pokémon League my mastery of my team'? Didn't you tell me that, Volkner? Didn't you want me to show them my spark? Well, I showed it to them. I won. How can you not be happy for me?"

He turns back to me, looking earnestly appalled that I accused him of not being happy for me. He takes a step towards me again, but I think nothing of it this time. A single step can't mean anything good. But when he takes two steps, standing so close to me that I can smell his cologne, my heart pounds again.

He towers over me, his wild blonde hair falling over his face so it casts a shadow over his eyes. I want to reach up and brush the shadow away, stare into those bright blue eyes of his, but I just stare at his dark eyes instead. He purses his lips into a thin line, and I copy his expression. This doesn't make him smile.

"I am happy for you, Dawn. I'm happy," he finally admits, relaxing his tense body. He falls a little closer to me, and I want to reach out and touch his arm. "I'm happy that the girl who got me going again is the new Champion. I'm happy that you're the girl who taught that Flint a good lesson. He needed one; he was getting a little cocky." He smiles now, and I grin obnoxiously at this. Is it wrong for me to feel happy when he's happy? "I'm happy that you got to follow your dream and become the Champion. I'm happy you're happy."

His eyelids drop again, and he pulls his hands out of his pockets. Before I can stop myself, I reach out to him, taking his large hands in my small ones, entwining my fingers with his. His hands are warm, like a hot electrical current runs through them. He doesn't pull his hands away from me, but I instead feel him press his palms against mine.

But that doesn't mean anything. No step, no smile, no hand-holding mean anything. Because I'm still just the girl that got him going again. Just a girl. Seventeen years to his twenty-two years is not impressive to anyone, and I know what it means for me: it doesn't mean anything. Nothing will happen.

"I just… I can't help but think that you _are_ moving on to bigger and better things now. That you stopping by the lighthouse is a one-time deal. That you aren't going to come back after this. And I want you to come back." He blushes, flustered by his admission, and he drops his gaze away from mine to hide himself.

This can't mean anything either. No step, no smile, no hand-holding, no wanting me to come back meant anything. Friends do the same things, don't they? They step, they smile, they hand-hold, they want each other to come back. Heck, I know I miss Barry and Lucas like crazy. All of this… Volkner is just a friend.

And that's why I need to leave. That's why I can't come back.

I pull my hands away from him and reach into my bag, pulling out a large cream-colored egg with blue and pick polka dots. I hold it out to him, cradling it in both of my hands, and he looks at me instead of the egg with a curious expression. I just smile, holding the egg out to him until he takes it from me.

"It's a Mareep egg. I thought you might like to add an Ampharos to that team of yours. The old man at the Day Care center found it and gave it to me, but I already have an Electric-type in my party. I don't need another one. I thought you would be able to give it a good home where I wouldn't be able to." I continue to smile at him, and he brings the egg closer to him, holding it against his stomach and looking down at it.

"Dawn."

"Please. I really can't give it a good home. You were the first person I thought to give it to. It can add more spark to your team!" I wink at him, but he just frowns. He knows what this means, what this gift says. And subtly it says that I'm not coming back this time because you don't love me back. I have given up.

He holds the egg back out to me, and I stare at him, bewildered by his actions. "This is goodbye, huh? Well, I'm not taking it if you're not coming back. I'll wait forever to see you again, but I _do_ want to see you again. And if you think you can just give this to me as a distraction, then I'm not taking it."

I gasp, entirely flabbergasted. "Distraction? It's a Pokémon!"

"And I thought I was dealing with a kindhearted Champion." He continues to hold the egg out to me, and I put my hands on my hips. "If you won't take it back, then…" He pauses, trying to figure out what he can possibly do. "I'll just have to give it to one of my Gym Trainers. And that wasn't your intention, now, was it?"

I just shrug, turning to walk away. "Well, that's fine by me. It's your egg now." I head towards the elevator, but Volkner runs in front of me, still carefully cradling the egg in his hands. He stops right in front of the elevator, and my heart pounds again. I can't help but feel distinctly pleased that he is trying to stop me from leaving. But it probably doesn't mean anything.

"Volkner!"

"You're the girl who got the spark back in me. No one else could do that. Don't you think that means something?" he demands, and I gape at him, unsure what to say. "Don't you think the girl who could electrify the Electric-type Gym Leader is special? That girl shocked my heart. Don't you think she belongs with me?"

"Volkner," I say again, but this time my tone is soft, delicate. He holds the egg in one hand, reaching another hand behind my head and placing his lips on mine. I feel a jolt of electricity, a shock in my own heart, and I know this means something. Maybe one step meant more than I thought, a smile meant a thousand things…

I nod when he lets go of me, and when he holds the egg back out to me, I push it back towards him. "I'll come back. When that egg hatches, I'll come back."

The egg hatches on my eighteenth birthday. I return to Volkner, as promised, celebrating a birthday for two. The Mareep, fluffy and beautiful from birth, shocked us both, and we laugh and smile about it still. Even as the Mareep grows, Volkner and I find ourselves shocked at the simplest of things that she does. If something means anything, then it _is_ as simple as that.

And now that I've come back, I can't leave just yet. I still have to watch all of us grow. Just another step forward and a smile.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Something different. I find Volkner very attractive. And since I do, I decided to write a fanfiction about him (and Dawn)! Plus, I just beat him in Pearl, so I was in the mood.

I kind of wish I had Platinum. Apparently he breaks and enters your villa in Platinum with Flint (and Flint proceeds to discuss Pokémon coming out of his afro)? That sounds awesome. Like, really awesome. And hilarious.

Anyway. I wrote this SO quickly. Yay for inspiration! I literally (and I mean literally) started writing this at 7:54AM, and it is now 9:58AM. I am quite impressed with how quickly I wrote this. Hopefully the quality doesn't suck! XD

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.


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